1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to Web logs and more particularly to the real-time posting of data to a Web log.
2. Description of the Related Art
A “Blog” can be defined as a regularly updated Web log. The prototypical blog can include information relating to a specific topic. For instance, in many cases a blog has been used as a daily diary regarding the personal life of the author, the political views of the author, or a social commentary reflecting the viewpoint of the author. The roots of “blogging” can be traced to the mid-1990's. Still, the identity of the first blogger remains unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until the year 1999. Nevertheless, the original “weblogs” could be characterized as link-driven Web sites containing the personal commentaries of one or more authors. In this regard, the first blogs can be viewed as human guided Internet Web tours. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs since have evolved into the latest, fresh Web content.
Today, blogging represents an emerging collaboration technology that greatly simplifies the sharing of ideas and thoughts in a communal bulletin board environment. Specifically, blogging can simplify the posting of Web content by automating the publishing of Web log content. To that end, blogs provide a means for an individual or group to maintain a Web site where posting new content is accomplished via a Web browser allowing content to be aggregated easily. In many circumstances, blog posts can be complimented with commentary from the original poster as well by others who visit the blog.
Much of the explosion of web-based commentary via blogging has been fueled by the addition of “Really Simple Syndication” (RSS) publishing features in blogging applications. RSS technology allows blog sites to be constantly updated with “feeds” from related blog sites, building a vast interconnected network of blogged information—a social construct of connected commentary. RSS is an XML-based format that allows the syndication of content ranging from lists of hyperlinks to blog postings. To enable the syndication of content, a Web site can publish an RSS feed, or channel. Once a feed becomes available, content browsers can regularly fetch the RSS feed to receive the most recently published content in the channel.
Presently, the management of a blog has been greatly simplified through the use of blog management tools which shield the management process from contributing authors. In particular, instant messaging technologies have been incorporated into blogging technologies to provide a unidirectional means of updating the content of a blog through the familiar interface of the instant messaging client. Nevertheless, while the ability to update the content of a blog real time or in near real-time has been supported through the use of instant messaging technologies, the ability to support real-time bidirectional collaboration in the blogging environment has not yet materialized. Yet, within a business context, blog postings may require time-sensitive responses depending upon the level of urgency associated with a post. Real time communication within corporate networks in general can be accomplished via conventional instant messaging technologies. As blogging technologies become integrated within the corporate portal, however, the need will arise to support the integration of instant messaging technologies with other business collaboration technologies such as the blog.